Recently, a popular form of multilamp photoflash arrays has been the so called "flip-flash" devices which are formed for use with numerous inexpensive cameras and to be thrown away or discarded after use. In such structures, it is common to provide a printed circuit board having a plurality of circuit "runs" or electrical paths and a plurality of contact pads electrically connected to the circuit runs. An aperture is provided in the contact pads and an electrically conductive lead of a photoflash lamp is threaded through the apertures and affixed to the surrounding contact pad.
Understandably, it is not unusual for the contact pads in the above-described structure to have a width in the range of about 0.080 to 0.100 inches. Also, these relatively large contact pads usually have a central aperture for receiving the lead wires of the photoflash lamps. Thus, good electrical contact between the lead wires of the flashlamps and the contact pads is readily achieved.
However, miniaturized multilamp photoflash arrays present other problems. For example, miniaturized arrays usually do not have enough space to permit large contact pads. Also, the contact pads on miniaturized arrays do not surround the lead-receiving apertures due to the limited space between the apertures. Moreover, the above-mentioned limited available space becomes a more critical issue when the printed circuit board is fabricated by a die-stamp technique. Therein, the edges of relatively large holes, such as the wire-receiving apertures, must have a clearance from the cutting edge of the die of about 0.015 inches or the foil from which the conductors of the circuit board is stamped will not be cut. Thus, the conductor lead holes and the contact pads must have a clearance of at least 0.015 inches for a die-stamp fabrication process.
Additionally, it is common to fabricate the above-described structures by merely providing an aperture in the center of an electrical contact pad and passing a conductive lead therethrough. However, such a process is unacceptable in structures wherein space is so limited that centralized apertures in the electrical contact pads are not feasible.